Rob Zombie's Assassin's Creed Unity short film is surprisingly good (and unsurprisingly gory)

So, you want to give gamers a quick primer to France's bloody historical backcloth, but can't afford to send them all a copy of Les Miserables*. If you're Ubisoft, the not entirely obvious answer is 'hire Rob Zombie'. The rocker-turned-director whose credits includes the startlingly grim The Devil's Rejects, and the startlingly boring Lords of Salem, has teamed up with Walking Dead artist Tony Moore to create a short animated film to promote Assassin's Creed Unity.

And you know what? It's pretty bloody good, with the emphasis very much on the bloody. Oh things start conservatively enough by Zombie's standards, but before long we're being treated to a cavalcade of head-chopping, cheek-ripping and eyeball bisection. That's right, I said cavalcade. The film was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con, but thanks to the magical powers of 1s and 0s you can watch it right now.

While there's plenty of blood and death in the film—mother might argue slightly too much —there's little in the way of actual assassinating going on, with the game's main character, and new series star, Arno Dorian only appearing at the end. No matter, once you've had your fill of edutainment scene-setting, check out our interview with the developer from E3. Assassin's Creed Unity is due for release on 28 October. [*Edit: as has been pointed out to me, Les Miserables is actually about the June Rebellion . Consider myself shamed.]